LUNG CANCER is the second most common cancer
in both men and women,
not counting skin cancer,
and is the leading cause of
death. In men, prostate
cancer is more common,
while in women breast
cancer is more common.
More people die of lung
cancer each year than of
colon, breast and prostate
cancers combined.

The American Cancer
Society estimates that in
2012 there will be more
than 160,000 deaths from
lung cancer and more than
226,000 new cases diagnosed—about 14 percent of
all new cancer cases.

Not confined to smokersTobacco accounts forThe leading cause oflung cancer in nonsmok-ers, according to theEnvironmental ProtectionAgency (EPA), is exposureto radon gas. It accountsfor more than 20,000deaths each year. Radon isfound all over the U.S. andcan get into any type ofbuilding, but it sometimesbecomes concentrated inhomes built on soil withnatural uranium deposits.Studies have found thatthe risk of lung cancer is

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Kristin Kirkpatrick THE HOLIDAY season has arrived! Thanksgiving dinner plans are scheduled, wish lists are composed and RSVPs for cocktail
parties are in the mail.

Amid all the excitement,it’s easy to fail to plan forone’s health and, on average, most of us pack onpounds between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.This year, avoid holiday heaviness by incorporat-ing a few simple tactics.

Eat before you go. Portion control is key to
keeping weight down during the holidays.
Enjoying a snack of nuts, string cheese or a few
whole-grain crackers about an hour prior to your
event will mean you’re arriving at a holiday event
satisfied, not starving. This ensures you can enjoy
the buffet without going overboard.

Watch the booze. The calories in alcohol add
up quickly and can also cloud your consumption
judgment, making you more likely to nosh on
high-fat, high-calorie options without thinking.
Limit your alcohol to no more than one drink per
event if you’re a woman, two if you’re a man.
Swapping the glass of wine for a wine spritzer can
also help keep calories down.

and buy your holiday desserts instead. Buying
saves you from having to keep tempting ingredients in the house that you normally wouldn’t (
butter, chocolate chips, etc.). It also prevents you from
taste-testing the yummy (yet high-calorie) treats
you’re making.

Shop till you drop. Exercise routines often
suffer during the holidays. The good news is that
shopping, on average, burns about 150 calories per
hour. Bring a healthy snack with you to avoid visiting the food court. Want an easy way to walk a
mile? Simply stroll down every aisle on your next
trip to Costco—I measured it!

Keep track. Keeping a food diary and weighing
yourself every few days has been shown to help
ward off holiday weight gain. Bottom line: Don’t
wait until January 1 to get on the scale.

The holidays are about socializing with family
and friends. Keep your focus on having fun with
those you love, not on overdoing it with food. C

Costco member Kristin Kirkpatrick is the manager
of wellness nutrition services at the Cleveland Clinic
Wellness Institute (
http://my.clevelandclinic.org).

to work, rest and play at all
hours of the day, and a paper
recently published in BioEssays
suggests that this might have
serious consequences for our
health and for our waistlines.

Daily, or circadian, rhythms,
including the sleep/wake cycle,
and rhythms of hormone
release, are controlled by a
molecular clock that is present
in every cell of the human body.

This human clock has its ownbuilt-in, default rhythm of almostexactly 24 hours that allows it tostay tuned to the daily cyclegenerated by the rotation of theEarth. This symmetry betweenthe human clock and the dailycycle of Earth’s rotation isdisrupted by exposure toarti;cial light cycles, and byirregular meal, work and sleeptimes. The mismatch betweenthe natural circadian rhythms ofCONTINUED ON PAGE 95